THE EPITAPH VOL. 99
LA VIE EN ROSE (2007) - LEAN ON ME (1989) - MYSTERY STREET (1959) - RHAPSODY IN BLUE (1945) - THREE COMRADES (1938) - LOVER COME BACK (1961) - THE PUSHER (1960) - FATAL BEAUTY (1987)
LA VIE EN ROSE (2007) - Extended Version Blu-ray
Label: Warner Archive
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: PG-13
Duration: 140 Minutes 39 Seconds
Audio: French DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.39:1)
Director: Olivier Dahan
Cast: Marion Cotillard, Emmanuelle Seigner, Gerard Depardieu
A lush, bleak and nonlinear biopic of the legendary French singer Édith Piaf, played by Marion Cotillard (A Very Long Engagement) is a devastating and quite dour accounting of the immortal French singer, an unflinching true story that tracks her tragic life from the tough streets of being raised in a brothel by her grandmother, early career as a cabaret singer, and her rise to stardom, a life and career marked my personal tragedy, love lost, and crippling alcohol and morphine addiction. It's a wonderful film, bt also deeply sad and tragic, punctuated by professional high and persona lows. The lensing is stunning, the Oscar-winning make-up effects used to age Cotillard for Piaf;s later life are stunning, and the warsta dn all approach to the biopic is enthralling, if deeply, deeply saddening. This comes highly recommended, the Blu-ray looks and sounds wonderful, and while the extras are archival-only slim, the presentation alone is worth a purchase.
Special Features:
- Featurette: Stepping Into Character (7:18)
- Theatrical Trailer (2:04)
- Song Selection
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LEAN ON ME (1989)
Blu-ray
Label: Warner Archive
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: R
Duration: 108 Minutes 54 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: John G. Avildsen
Cast: Morgan Freeman, Beverly Todd, Robert Guillaume
Lean on Me (`989) is the true story of high school principal Joe Clark (Morgan Freeman, Se7en) who after being tasked with cleaning-up the drug-addled and graffiti covered Eastdale High in Paterson, New Jersey. While he's brought in to save the school, he takes some hard-line and tyrannical approach to get it dione, tossing out those he deems incorrigible, chained the doors to keep troublemakers out, and carrying around a Louisville Slugger, dubbing himself "The Bat-Man". his unorthodox and bullying approach doesn't exactly win everyone over, but the results speak for themselves, with one irate parent, Leona Barett (Lynne Thigpen, The Warriors), making it her mission to bring him down. Horror fans take note, we get Candyman's Tony Todd as Clark's no-nonsense Dean of Security William Wright, Dean of Security - it's a smaller role, but it is always great to see the great-late Tony Todd, especially one that's pre-Candyman! It took forever for this one to get a Blu-ray, but warner Archive have delivered a stellar A/V presentation, too bad we only get a Trailer, and no other extras.
Special Features:
- Original Theatrical Trailer (1:28)
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Blu-ray
Label: Warner Archive
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 93 Minutes 13 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.37:1)
Director: John Sturgess
Cast: Ricardo Montalban, Sally Forrest, Jan Sterling, Bruce Bennett
In the John Sturgess (Bad Day at Black Rock) directed noit-tinged thriller Mystery Street (1950) floozy lounge-singer Vivian Heldon (Jan Sterling, Caged!) picks up a very drunk Henry Shanway (Marshall Thompson, It! The Terror from Beyond Space) and asks for a ride in his car. She ends up driving sixty miles outside of town and when he demands that she return tot he city she dumps him on the side of the road and stealing his car, continuing in to meet her sugar-daddy James Harkley (Edmond Ryan, Storm Warning) on a secluded stretch of road, where he shoots her dead, buying her in the sand dunes and dumping Henry's car in the river. Months later Vivian;s skeletonized remains are found in the desert by a birdwatcher, Lt. Peter Morales (Ricardo Montalban, Border Incident), a Boston police detective is assigned to the case, and he seeks the help of Harvard forensic scientist Dr. McAdoo (Bruce Bennett, The Alligator People) to help identify the remains, which he does by superimposing images of people reported missing over images of the deceased woman. he also says that smaller bones found with her skeleton indicate she was preggers at the time she was killed. When the car soon after discovered in the river it doesn't take long before Morales puts two and two together, Henry was the last one seen with the dead woman, and now he's the main suspect in her death, circumstantial though it may be. Meanwhile Vivian;s nos landlady Mrs. Smerrling (Elsa Lanchester, The Bride of Frankenstein) figures out who the real killer is and puts forth an ill-fated blackmail attempt. This is a top-notch thriller, ightly directed by legendary Sturgess and lensed with some nice shadowy noir vibes by cinematographer John Alton (The Amazing Mr. X), this is a gem that will please fans of crime thrillers, murder mysteries and noir, and I loved the melodrama of it all and the seemingly early crime forensics of it all. As usual Warner Archive knock it out of the park with a gorgeous monochromatic 4K restoration sourced from the best available preservation elements, that looks and sounds terrific, and we get some solid archival extras, especially the Audio Commentary by Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward.
Special Features:
- Audio Commentary by Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward
- Featurette Murder At Harvard (4:54)
- Classic MGM Cartoons: Little Quacker (7:11) and Tom and Jerry in the Hollywood Bowl (7:26)
- Original Theatrical Trailer (2:24)
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(1945) Blu-ray
Label: Warner Archive
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 161 Minutes 21 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.37:1)
Director: Irving Rapper
Cast: Robert Alda, Alexis Smith, Joan Leslie, Oscar Levant
The epic and somewhat fictionalized George Gershwin biopic Rhapsody in Blue (1945) stars Robert Alda (The Beast with Five Fingers) as one of the all-time American great composers. tracking his life from his humble beginning, a young man obsessed with music, and who finds success in his teens after penning his first big hit "Swanee," after it caught the ear of introduced Al Jolson (playing himself) who brings it to Broadway where it becomes a smash hit. Gershwin collaborates with hsi lyricist brother, Ira (Herbert Rudley), and the two make hit after hit, but he's always looking for some new avenues of musical expression, and had a yearning to compose something more artistic and less pop, which he eventually achieves with "Rhapsody in Blue," in 1924. it's a terrific biopic, a bit long, they try to cram in a lot and even still gloss over quite a bit, but at the end of the day this is an engaging music biopic. The film has been lovingly remastered from 4K scans of nitrate materials, restoring over 12 minutes of footage never-before-seen by the general public, and the overture of Gershwin melodies which only accompanied the film during its New York and Hollywood premiere engagements. The only extras are a Trailer and the ability to jump to certain songs, but the restoration is quite lovely and the film is wonderful.
Special Features:
- Original Theatrical Trailer (2:19)
- Song Selection
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Blu-ray
Label: Warner Archive
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 98 Minutes 55 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.37:1)
Director: Frank Borzage
Cast: Robert Taylor, Margaret Sullavan, Franchot Tone, Robert Young
At the end of WWI German soldiers Erich Lohkamp (Robert Taylor, The Night Walker), Otto Koster (Franchot Tone, Mutiny on the Bounty), and Gottfried Lenz (Robert Young, The Mortal Storm) return to their hometown to star-up a mechanic's shop. They meet the lovely Pat Hollmann (Margaret Sullavan, The Shining Hour), a former aristocrat turned pauper, while she is in the company of the wealthy businessman Franz Breuer (Lionel Atwill, Doctor X), and once it's noted that she is not dating him, she and Erich strike up a lovely romance, and they marry. Pat keeps from him that she had tuberculosis, and while on their honeymoon her illness comes on heavy, and she is told she must rest and convalesce in a sanitarium, and that her condition is life threatening. A very character driven flick with plenty of melorama around Erich feelings of societal inadequacy, and Pat's frail health. The three brothers all clearly love Pat, but not in a a sexual way, for two of them anyway, but they are all drawn to her radiant personality, and the film sort of centers around her. There's also a subplot involving
Gottfried joining a pacifist anti-nationalist group which puts him at odds with the growing nationalist movement, which result in tragedy, and two of the brothers embarking on a revenge mission, which sort of feels slightly at odds with the rest of the film to be honest. Nonetheless, and engaging melodrama that still works it's magic, I had some tears in my eyes during the final minutes of this one. The one real slight against might be the American actors make not attempt to feign a German accent even, and the end result is that it does not feel very German, heck they don't even mention the Nazimovement which is in the background, but still, as a tragic melodrama this delivered the good.
Special Features:
- MGM Shorts: How To Raise A Baby (3:02) and The Face Behind the Mask (10:46)
- Original Theatrical Trailer(3:26)
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(1961)
Label: Universal Pictures
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 106 Minutes 52 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Delbert Mann
Cast: Rock Hudson, Doris Day, Tony Randall, Edie Adams, Jack Oakie
You will never be disappointed by a rom-com team-up of Rock Hudson and Doris Day, and the Delbert Mann (Marty) directed comedy Lover Come Back (1961) is an absolute delight. Here we have Jerry Webster (Rock Hudson, Pillow Talk) and Carol Templeton (Doris Day, Send Me Know Flowers) are rival Madison Avenue advertising executives, he's skirt-chasing boozer with charm to spare while she;s a very straight-laced and driven modern gal with principals, and when he steals a client out from under her she sets out to infiltrate his mysterious new product campaign, something called "VIP", and steal away the scientist behind the product, but it's a phony product, and the story behind that is a comedy into itself. Never having seen Webster before she mistakes him for the scientist Linus Tyler and sets out to woo him away, and he plays along, and much rom-com hilarity ensues. The film also co-stars the always delightful Tony Randall (The Odd Couple) as the owner of the ad agency that Webster works for. This is the best sort of farcical rom-com fluff, and it still has plenty of charm, and I love the risqué humor and double-innuendo of it all. Additionally, it looks gorgeous, it was shot in Eastmancolor and it looks dazzling on Blu-ray from MGM.
Special Features:
- Theatrical Trailer (2:32)
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(1960)
Label: MGM
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 82 Minutes 14 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.85:1)
Director: Gene Milford
Cast: Kathy Carlyle, Douglas F. Rodgers, Felice Orlandi, Robert Lansing, Sara Aman, Sloan Simpson, Beatrice Pons, Jim Boles, Ernesto Gonzalez, John Fostini
The Pusher (1960), adapted from Ed McBain’s 1956 novel, is a seedy crime thriller directed by Gene Milford (Wait Until Dark), wherein a hard-boiled New York City detective Lieutenant Peter Byrne (Douglas Rodgers, Never love A Stranger) and his partner, Detective Steve Carella (Robert Lansing, The Nest) investigate the overdose of young Puerto Rican man, which is made to look like a suicide by hanging but turns out to be a murder objected to a drug-dealing hood named "Gonzo” (Felice Orlandi, Killer's Kiss), and things hit close to home for both detectives, as Byrne's daughter Laura (Kathy Carlyle, When Hell broke Loose), who is engaged to Carella, is a secret heroin-junkie who gets her smack from Gonzo. A terrifically seedy film that gives us a tour of the low-rent areas of Bronx-area NYC, the streets are filthy, the people are shady, and the drugs are easy to get. Not as stylish or hard shadowed as a earlier true noirs, but still a striking and engaging crime flick full of seedy atmosphere and grit, and a smarmy and deadly street-smart villain that really made the film for me. The MGM Blu-ray looks excellent and sounds great, sadly no extras, but a solid catalog release of a surprisingly frank drug flick for this era, Laura's withdrawal scenes are pretty edgy for it;s time.
Special Features:
- None
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Label: MGM
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: R
Duration: 104 Minutes 15 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Tom Holland
Cast: Whoopi Goldberg, Sam Elliott, Ruben Blades, Harris Yulin, Jennifer Warren
Fatal beauty (1987), directed by Tom Holland (Fright Night) is an action-comedy very much in the vein of Beverly Hills Cop, wherein Whoopi Goldberg (The Color Purple) plays L.A.P.D. detective Rita Rizzoli, who is trying to clean the street of drugs, and a new synthetic drug called "Lethal Beauty" has hit the streets of Los Angeles, with deadly results. The drug kingpin behind it is Conrad Kroll (Harris Yulin, Night Moves), but he's a high-powered figure and she's already in hot-water with her her superior Lieutenant Kellerman (John P. Ryan, It's Alive) after having botched a previous bust. She's aided by her partner Detective Carl Jimenez (Rubén Blades, Predator 2) and finds an unlikely ally and semi love-interest by way of Kroll's bodyguard Mike Marshak (Sam Elliott, The Legacy) who teams-up with her to take out rival drug dealers who have stolen a tainted batch of Kroll's new drug. The mix of humor and cop grit don't always mix well, Beverly Hills Cop blended it better, but this is still an entertaining action-comedy, Goldberg gives a solid turn her, she's funny and acerbic, but also gets some surprisingly emotional sequences, and her chemistry with Elliot is enjoyable. The flick was previously issued on blu-ray by olive Films, this MGM Blu-ray is barebones, not even carrying over the trailer from the Olive release, but it looks solid and the action sequences sound pretty dang robust.
Special Features:
- None
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